Facing the 2015 National Exam with Confidence

Jakarta, Kartunet – In a matter of days, the National Exam (Ujian Nasional or UN) will be faced by high school, junior high, and even elementary school students. Generally, the National Exam becomes a terrifying 'bogeyman,' with many feeling stressed or desperate enough to buy leaked answers. If you feel unconfident facing the 2015 National Exam, perhaps some lessons from students with disabilities who study in regular schools and take the UN can inspire you. First, students with special needs tend not to have as much access to National Exam preparation as general students. This is because tutoring centers (Bimbel), or study guidance programs, generally do not accommodate their needs. Especially for students with disabilities from low-income families, it's even less likely for them to hope to attend tutoring. So, they usually just work hard to study and get practice questions from school enrichment programs for UN preparation. Well, do you still feel unconfident taking the National Exam with all your preparations and tutoring? Second, students with disabilities or special needs are less likely to cheat or use leaked answers when taking the National Exam. Especially for visually impaired students or those with limited vision, it's impossible, right, to glance left and right to ask for answers? Yet, there's almost never any news reporting that they failed the National Exam. In fact, some of them even continue on to pass university entrance selections at state universities (PTN). So, do you still feel unconfident, let alone resort to looking for leaked answers? Lastly, if you usually take exams in a room with at least 20 people and are only supervised by two or three proctors, it's different for them. For students with disabilities, especially the visually impaired, a special room is used for one student taking the exam, accompanied by two proctors! This adds weight to the second point above: how would one even try to cheat if the ratio is two against one? This is indeed true because to complete the National Exam, a visually impaired student is usually accompanied by two supervising teachers, one of whom reads the questions, while the other helps write the student's answers on the answer sheet. Perhaps you think there's special treatment like extra time? No, because they will start working on the questions and finish at the same bell signal as other students. From these three points, do you still feel unconfident facing the 2015 National Exam? With all your preparations, with all the advantages you possess, it is only right that you should be more grateful and more confident when taking the UN later. There's no reason to be afraid, let alone despair. With hard work accompanied by prayer, everything will certainly go according to plan. If students with disabilities or special needs can do it, why would you be unconfident? (DPM)